Call Waiting: The Tale of Three Boys

This morning I’d like to tell the story of three boys. They’re all in the Bible. They never knew each other, but all are remembered and revered and may have something to teach us. They were, you see, special and had much in common. They each received a call — from God.




Samuel



For Samuel, the call came early. It was in the early days of the Hebrews, the period we call the time of the Judges. The Jews were a collection of tribes living in the promised land after God had rescued them from Egypt. Moses is long dead and Joshua too is gone. The people have no leader, and while they still have the ark of the covenant, that sacred table in which they preserved the stone tablets of Moses’ Law, their existence is precarious and not always godly.



Samuel was his mother’s pride and joy. She had long been barren and finally made a pact with God that, should he grant her a son, she in turn would raise the boy specifically for God. In this story we find Hannah has kept her promise. The boy was given to the old priest Eli at the temple at Shiloh to be apprenticed into the life of a priest himself.



The lad served the old priest at the temple. He no doubt received religious training there and from what little we are told must have been a source of satisfaction to him. Perhaps his only joy, for Eli was old and there was trouble in the land. The Philistines had gathered nearby threatening their peace and safety. His sons were little satisfaction to him. Though meant to be priests like their father, the Bible tells us these young men neglected their duties and paid little attention to the niceties of the Mosaic Law. Eli could not control them, nor could he do much about the dangers surrounding the people. Until one night when Samuel heard a voice and thought it was the old priest who was calling him. But he was wrong. It was God.



This was the beginning of a remarkable life and an historic time for the Hebrews. The people needed guidance, more than a novice priest could give. Samuel was appointed a Judge, like Samson and Deborah before him, to be their leader. He was not a king, that honor was reserved for God, but Judges had special insight and power in the eyes of the people. The trouble was, they didn’t have enough; at least not enough to face down the dreaded Philistines The Jews grew more frightened and discontented. They needed something more powerful than a judge. After all, Samuel was no longer a boy, he was growing old and unbending in his ways. When the Philistines attacked them and stole the ark of the covenant, the people began clamoring for a king who could really lead and protect them. After all, big countries had kings, if they had one too, it might give them strength and prestige among the nations. Samuel, with God’s urging, reluctantly chose them a king, a man named Saul, and thus ended his story as far as the Jews were concerned. God no longer needed him. What do you do with a worn out Judge?



Jeremiah



The time of Judges passed, replaced by a line of kings. But kingdoms fade too, and the kingdom that had grown so mighty under David and his son Solomon was also gone. Worshiping God when it suited them, the Hebrews had been prone to quarreling and dividing. They had even become two nations instead of one with Israel, the larger, to the North, and Judah to the south. Israel was conquered in 721 BC leaving Judah, the smaller of the two scarcely much more than a city state with Jerusalem its capital. King Josiah had attempted to bring reform to the land, but it was too little and too late, and Babylon was too strong for them. God was preparing them for a new covenant. He called Jeremiah to be his spokesman.



Perhaps Jeremiah was not technically a youth, nor quite as untutored as some children, still when his story begins it is clear that he considers himself far too young to be commissioned to prophecy for God. Even though he belonged to a priestly family that lived in a village just outside Jerusalem, the religious center of the nation, and surely had religious training of his own, he apparently did not think of himself as priestly material. Surely God needed a more likely person than he. “Who is going to listen to a child?” he asks God.



It was not a happy assignment. No, rather than a wise leader upon whom the people could rely for guidance, his would be the more difficult calling. Like it or not, he would be a prophet. Being God’s prophet is not a happy calling and as some spiritual advisors have put it, “If you can be anything else but a minister, be it.” “The sky is falling, the sky is falling”, cries the prophet, and you know how unpopular that kind of person usually is.



Some prophets could at least hold out some hope. Joel, for instance, had called for a national day of repentance and prayer, saying, “Maybe God will turn around and change his mind.” Micah had urged them to “Do justly, love kindness and walk humbly with God.” There was still time. God was giving them another chance.



Jeremiah had no such message. “Lay down your arms” he thundered. “You’re not just fighting the Babylonians, you are fighting God. God is on their side this time. It’s too late. Give up. Accept your fate and take your punishment. It was nice while it lasted, but it’s over.”



He was hated for it, of course. And he was broken-hearted. He would witness the fall of Judah and the destruction of the Temple in 587 BC. He fled to Egypt where he spent the rest of his life in exile. No wonder he has been given the nickname “The weeping prophet” : he would become a symbol for suffering and tragedy for all times.



The Boy Jesus



I don’t need to tell the story of Jesus, do I? Not in detail. But I would like to look a moment at this strange boy who, at the age of twelve, goes to the temple to listen and learn and do some teaching of his own, without the permission of his parents.

He’s a bit of a contrast to the other two boys, isn’t he? Samuel, naive, Jeremiah reluctant, Jesus eager to be about his Father’s work. Samuel hears a strange voice and must have the old priest Eli explain it to him. Jeremiah apparently hears God’s voice too, but has no difficulty recognizing it. Prophets have a peculiar trait: hearing that inner voice and feeling a sense of compulsion that goes beyond their own willingness



Jesus does not seem to have this struggle, this reluctance: at least not at first. His love of God is all-consuming. He is, after all, God in human flesh. How could he quarrel with God’s mission for him? Still, we know the rest of the story, and we know how many times he was misunderstood, rejected, reviled and even threatened with death. And all this before his final act of obedience: his week in Jerusalem which would end with a trial and a cross.



It seems strange to me that all three boys would be given so completely to God, remain faithful - even if at times reluctant - to their mission, and all three would suffer so dreadfully.



Each lived in a time of trouble and crisis. It was during Samuel’s lifetime that the Philistines attacked Shiloh and stole the ark of the covenant. This represented not only the weakness of the Jews in the face of attack from the enemy, it also suggested that God was either angry with them and had taken his protection away from them, or that he was too weak a god to prevent such desecration, a horrible thought.



Jeremiah lived in a time of turmoil also. The Babylonians were poised for conquest on their northern borders, and the religious practices of the Jews had grown lax and corrupt. Exile would mean the end of the mighty nation, and though there would be a return to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah, the old glory would not return.



And of course, the Palestine in which Jesus lived was under the military rule of the Roman Empire. They called it peace, the Pax Romana, but it was still slavery. There may have been a congenial relationship with the authorities, but the Jews were subservient to their masters in Rome - a puppet state, and a galling one considering what they had once been under King David.



But the point of it all is that in each case, God was on watch, God was preparing for new things, and God called each of these boys to an important task that would change, not only their lives, but all our lives.



A Little Child Shall Lead Them



What is the moral of these stories? Consider one more child: There is an unflattering anecdote that occurs in all three Synoptic Gospels concerning an argument that developed amongst the disciples. It seems they were doing some head count about who was the likeliest leader of their number - after Jesus of course. They were jockeying for positions of authority and honor in the new Kingdom they expected Jesus to establish when they got to Jerusalem. It’s rather like the celebration that typically occurs on election night for the campaign workers of the winning candidate.



Jesus took a child and set it before them and announced that this child was worthier of such recognition than any of them. Later, when people brought their children to Jesus for recognition and blessing, and the disciples, proving their memories were short, tried to protect the Master from such an undignified interruption, Jesus corrected them again, suggesting that entrance into the Kingdom of God required the innocence and the wide-eyed trust of a small child.



What are we to make of this teaching? Not that children are so cute and cuddly, although they can certainly be that. But as any parent knows ‘tis not always so. No, our three boys tell us that children hear more because they are more curious, more willing to listen, more eager to learn. It is as if we all arrive with a vague sense of purpose buried deep within that suggests we belong first to God, and then are on loan to this world for a little while. Such a knowing is too vague, too indistinct, to be put into words. We grow into it.



We also learn that such a calling is not necessarily a happy assignment, for we live in a less than happy world. Thus it has always been. God is like a potter, constantly reworking the clay, constantly striving to bring this imperfect creation to a higher degree of perfection. Ours are the hands he uses to - as we pray in the Lord’s prayer, - make “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.



But as we learn the lesson of the little child, let us be careful to remember, it is not an assignment of privilege, it is a labor that can and quite likely will break the heart. It is also the only life worth living!



There is a call waiting: will anyone answer? Amen.